AFK Journey is one of the most beginner-friendly AFK RPGs in the market, but there are still a lot of gameplay mechanics and features that you must learn before you can build a solid understanding of the game.
Read more to learn everything you need to know as a beginner in AFK Journey, including all the tasks you need to prioritize as soon as you create your character!
AFK Journey: All Basic Mechanics And Features
Here’s all you need to know about AFK Journey’s overall gameplay systems, as well as some tips on how to best utilize each one.
Open World Elements
AFK Journey is an open-world game where you can do things at your leisure. Follow the main story, do side quests, hunt monsters, or even explore the whole map if you feel like it—the possibilities are endless!
There are many open-world elements you can encounter in the game such as chests, puzzles, world enemies, and waystones.
You can see where each of them is located on the map as long as you have already explored the area they’re in, like so:
Exploring maps by solving puzzles and opening chests will increase your Exploration Progress which, when all combined, will give you tons of valuable resources like Invite Letters, Epic Invite Letters, and Diamonds that you can then use for hero summons.
TIP: You unlock Waystones just by walking past them. These Waystones allow you to fast-travel instantly whenever you like, so don’t forget to activate them whenever you see one near you!
Combat
Combat in AFK Journey is pretty straightforward. Your heroes do basic attacks automatically and gain Energy whenever their attack hits or they get hit by enemy attacks.
Once a hero’s Energy gauge is full, they then execute their Ultimate Skill, which generally either damages enemies heavily or supports your team via heals or buffs—sometimes both!
During combat, you can use 2x Speed and Auto Ultimate to make things more convenient. Also, if your Resonance Level is higher enough than an enemy while roaming around the world map, you can use a feature called One Hit to kill them instantly without a fight.
TIP: Do not use x2 Speed or Auto-Ultimate in harder battles. Remember, you can do marginally better if you control the timing and cast range of your Ultimates!
Hero Recruitment
As a beginner, there are three Hero Recruitment Banners you should pay attention to:
| Recruit Banners For Beginners | S-Level Hero Rates | A-Level Hero Rates | Acorn Rates |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rate Up Banner | 3.0% | 10.0% | Omni-Acorns 1.5% (x30) 15.0% (x4) 70.5% (x1) |
| All Hero Banner | 2.05% | 22.5% | Faction Acorns 0.5% (x30) 15.0% (x4) 59.95% (x1) |
| Epic Banner | 5.22% | 18.75% | Omni-Acorns 1.0% (x30) 25.0% (x4) 50.03% (x1) |
Also, here are the Guaranteed Pull (i.e. Pity) requirements for each of these Recruitment Banners:
| Recruit Banners For Beginners | Guaranteed Pull Requirements (S-Level Heroes) | Guaranteed Pull Requirements (A-Level Heroes) |
|---|---|---|
| Rate Up Banner | 1 per 40 recruits | 1 per 10 recruits |
| All Hero Banner | 1 per 60 recruits | 1 per 10 recruits |
| Epic Banner | 1 per 30 recruits | 1 per 10 recruits |
As mentioned above, the Rate Up and Epic Recruitment Banners have higher rates for S-Level heroes and lower pity but require rarer items such as Rate Up Invite Letters (you can buy these with Diamonds) or Epic Invite Letters.
The All Hero Recruitment Banner, on the other hand, has lower rates for S-Level heroes and a higher pity but only requires Invite Letters, which are easier to farm.
TIP: After recruiting heroes 30 times, you’ll unlock your Wishlist. This feature allows you to choose which A-Level or S-Level heroes you’d like to receive exclusively from all your recruits, except S-Level heroes from Rate Ups. Use it as early as you can so you can set which heroes you’d like to use in the long run!
Heroes & Your Resonance Level
Heroes can be categorized according to their:
- Ascension Tier (Rare, Elite, Epic, Legendary, Mythic, Supreme, Paragon)
- Damage Type (Physical, Magical)
- Rarity (A-Level, S-Level)
- Class (Support, Rogue, Mage, Marksman, Warrior, Tank)
- Faction (Lightbearer, Mauler, Graveborn, Wilder, Celestial, Hypogean)
All five of these influence how effective your heroes are during battle in one way or another, but as a beginner, what you should really be focusing on is your hero levels, more specifically your Resonance Level.
In AFK Journey, the Resonance Level feature makes it so that all of the heroes you own will have the level of the hero with the lowest level in your Hands of Resonance—as you can see from the image above.
This means that you only have to level up five heroes at a time by placing them in your Hands of Resonance, and the level of all your other heroes will be adjusted based on which of the five has the lowest level.
TIP: You can replace any of the five heroes you placed in your Hands of Resonance anytime, so make sure you place heroes with the highest Ascension Tiers there, as heroes with higher tiers have higher max levels!
AFK Progress
Your AFK Progress determines how much rewards you can get from the AFK Rewards feature, which gives you the following growth items passively based on how much time has passed:
- Hero Essences
- Training Manuals
- Gold
- Equipment Chests
All four of these items are essential if you want your heroes to get stronger fast and win increasingly harder fights, especially as a beginner.
TIP: You can turn on Auto Battle Mode after clearing AFK Stage 10 to clear multiple AFK stages consecutively until you lose—all without your input. If you're busy, just leave the game open on Auto Battle Mode while you do something else!
PVE Battle Modes
Here are all the PVE Battle Modes you can access in the game, how you can unlock them, and all the items you can get from them as a beginner:
| All PVE Battle Modes | Unlock Requirement | Obtainable Items |
|---|---|---|
| Dream Realm | Clear AFK Stage 16 | Weapon Chests Invite Letters Diamonds Training Manuals Dream Fragments Tidal Essences |
| Arcane Labyrinth | Clear AFK Stage 100 | Epic Invite Letters Hero Essences |
| Battle Drills | Clear AFK Stage 121 | Gold Guild Medals Treasure Keys Diamonds |
| Legend Trial | Clear AFK Stage 166 | Acorns Invite Letters |
PVP Battle Modes
Here are all the PVP Battle Modes you can access in the game, how you can unlock them, and all the items you can get from them as a beginner:
| All PVE Battle Modes | Unlock Requirement | Obtainable Items |
|---|---|---|
| Arena | Clear AFK Stage 20 | Diamonds Arena Coins Gold |
| Honor Duel | Clear AFK Stage 20 | Diamonds Invite Letters Gold |
AFK Journey: Four Things To Do First As A Beginner
To help you know which tasks to prioritize as soon as you start playing the game, here are four of the most important things you must do as a beginner in AFK Journey!
Follow the Story & Explore
Your very first priority as a beginner should be slogging through the main story and exploring as much of the map as you can.
This is because you can get a lot of valuable items such as Invite Letters and Diamonds just by doing main quests, opening chests, and solving puzzles.
Clearing story chapters is also the only way to get new Artifacts without resorting to in-app purchases, which can help boost the performance of your heroes in terms of overall damage and survivability in fights.
Clear AFK Stages
A player’s AFK Progress is very important not just for beginners, but for veteran players as well.
To put it simply, the more AFK Stages you clear, the more growth items such as Training Manuals, Hero Essences, Gold, and Equipment Chests you get from the AFK rewards per day.
These growth items, especially Hero Essences, will be a consistent roadblock for your progress, which is why you should aim to farm as much of it as you can by raising your AFK Progress even early on.
Join A Guild & Make Friends
Join a Guild as soon as you can, as it will give you access to Guild-exclusive features such as the Guild Chest and Combat Drills.
More importantly for beginners, it allows you to earn Guild Medals, which you can then spend in the Emporium's Guild Store for incredibly rare items such as:
- Hypogean Heroes
- Celestial Heroes
- Acorns
- Tidal Essence
- Epic Invite Letters
- Invite Letters
Adding as many active friends as you can is important for beginners as well, because the more friends you have, the more Pal Coins you’ll be able to farm.
This allows you to purchase the following items in the Emporium’s Friendship Store sooner:
- Hero Affinity-boosting Items
- Gestures
Remember to stay active both as a Guild member and a friend, or else you might get kicked out or unfriended!
Play PVP & Dream Realm ASAP
You can unlock Dream Realm battles by clearing AFK Stage 16, which should be relatively easy to do even as a beginner.
Sure other PVE Battle Modes are important as well, but as a new player, keep in mind that Dream realm is the most accessible out of all of them, not to mention that it resets daily so you’ll miss rewards if you get into it too late.
Ideally, you should start participating in Dream Realm battles as soon as your first day of playing, just so you can start farming Dream Fragments early. You can exchange these fragments for A-Class Hero Soul Sigils in the Emporium’s Dream Store.
You unlock Arena and Honor Duel by clearing AFK Stage 20, which shouldn’t be hard to achieve within your first several hours of gameplay as well.
At the very least, you should play Arena early on and fight every weaker player you can find, as you can start farming Arena Coins sooner this way. Arena Coins can be spent in exchange for S-Level Hero Soul Sigils in the Emporium’s Arena Store.
So to put it simply, the earlier you start going into the Arena, the more copies of S-Level Heroes you can get in the long run!
Conclusion
And that’s about it for a general overview of all the information all beginners should know about AFK Journey!
If you’re a fan of AFK Journey, check out our beginner’s guides for other fantastic RPG games like Aether Gazer and Takt Op Symphony!
